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Category: 31 CR – Free markets and democracy

“And so, the balance of business expenditures shifts from product research to market research. The television commercial has oriented business away from making products of value and toward making consumers feel valuable, which means that the business of business has now become pseudo-therapy.”

“We also examined studies of the “effects of particular regulations on particular industries. A surprising number of such studies actually show that regulations have a small positive net effect on employment; these include studies of environmental regulations on industries generating significant pollution”

“A 2007 Harris poll found that 71 percent of Americans believed that the continued burning of fossil fuels would cause the climate to change. By 2009 the figure had dropped to 51 percent. In June 2011 the number of Americans who agreed was down to 44 percent —well under half the population.”

“Sweden’s debt will shrink to 36.3 percent of GDP this year from 40.2 percent in 2007. In the U.K., the public debt burden will widen to 84 percent in 2011 from 44.4 percent, the European Commission estimates.”

“As Uitermark discusses in the upcoming podcast, one never sees overly anti-poor language in policy documents. Everything seems benign — a “banalization of injustice.” Many of these policies, incubator spaces and creative city concepts may promote economic growth, but with rising inequality and the clear reshaping of cities for certain classes, one has to read between the lines and look for what, and who, is missing.”